Now that he's retired, psychotherapist Hal Brown of Middleboro finds that sharing his ideas is his own personal therapy.

Four dead, and the spoiled brat defense gets killer a two-year vacation

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By Hal Brown

Hal Brown of Middleboro earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in social work at Michigan State University and went on to be a mental health center director and psychotherapist. He has always had a passion for writing, and has been on the
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Hal Brown of Middleboro earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in social work at Michigan State University and went on to be a mental health center director and psychotherapist. He has always had a passion for writing, and has been on the internet since the days you had to learn HTML code to publish a website.

Here’s a case you may not have heard of. A very drunk 16 year old boy named Ethan Crouch, from a rich Texas family, was driving his pick-up loaded with seven of his friends one night, and killed four pedestrians. He got off with no prison time. Thanks to a defense psychologist and a niave judge, instead he will "serve his time" at the posh Newport Academy.

According to station WHOU: "Miller said Couch's parents gave him 'freedoms no young person should have.' " He called Couch a product of 'affluenza,' where his family felt that wealth bought privilege and there was no rational link between behavior and consequences. He said Couch got whatever he wanted. As an example, Miller said Couch's parents gave no punishment after police ticketed the then-15-year-old when he was found in a parked pickup with a passed out, undressed 14-year-old girl."

Apparently he wanted the judge to believe his definition of affluenza as some kind of mental illness that affects kids whose parents have money and that this makes them feel guilty, unmotivated, and isolated. He threw in distress over his parents arguing and getting a divorce. (Fox News)

Get your hanky out, here's more from defense psychologist Miller:

The mother gave the teen things, Miller said. “Her mantra was that if it feels good, do it,” Miller said.

The teen’s intellectual age was 18, but his emotional age was 12, Miller told (Judge) Boyd.

“The teen never learned to say that you’re sorry if you hurt someone,” Miller said. “If you hurt someone, you sent him money.”

Miller said if the teen can get the help that he needs, perhaps he can become a contributing member of society and make amends for the pain he caused so many families.

“This kid has been in a system that’s sick,” Miller said. “If he goes to jail, that’s just another sick system.”

As a child, he had to make adult decisions, Miller said. He had a motorcycle when he was 4 or 5 and was driving large pickups at 13, Miller said. The teen was a high school graduate at 16, but could not say where he went to school, where he went to church and had no friends, Miller said.

His parents never taught him the things that good parents teach children, Miller said.

“He never learned that sometimes you don’t get your way,” Miller said. “He had the cars and he had the money. He had freedoms that no young man would be able to handle.”

The defense psychologist Dr. G. Dick Miller, testified that Couch’s life could be salvaged with one to two years’ treatment, and no contact with his parents. (link wffa.com) The facility website says that "consistent family involvement is mandatory in all aspects of treatment and recovery." This is in contradiction to the judge's mandate that Ethan have no contacts with his family for two years. How do you do family therapy without the faimly? But, I quibble.....

Defense attorneys asked that he be sent to what the papers said he called a private home in Newport Beach California. This is an affluent town on the California coast. There he will receive individual therapy. Supposedly this will cure Ethan Crouch of the bad case of alluenza he suffers from. The cost for this is over $1,200 a day, to be paid for by the boy’s father. Judge Jean Boyd agreed with this so-called sentence.

So off he goes to be cured of a mental condition that doesn’t exist, in a facility that costs as much to stay in as a suite in the Beverly Hills Hilton. He'll hand out with other rickh kids. He'll get some quality one-on-one therapy. And he'll be treated with, or perhaps I should be saying "treated to" equine therapy. That's another way of saying he gets to ride horses.

As a psychotherapist myself, I see no benefit to treatment in this kind of setting, especially for the so-called disease of affluenza. It would make far more sense for Crouch to be broken of his affluenza by being treated in a secure juvenile detention facility with teenagers from all walks of life. Instead, he’ll be surrounded by other privileged kids in what I assume will be none-to-shabby digs.

Who is this embarrassment to the psychology profession? According to his website: "Dr. G. Dick Miller has been in private practice in Clinical Psychology in the North Texas area since 1979. Dr. Miller works with attorneys to provide services for criminal litigation involving chemical dependency and substance abuse. He serves a diverse population between the ages of 12 and 65—people who are chemically dependent; parents needing help establishing boundaries with children; and individuals trapped in self-destructive behaviors, depression and anxiety."

Well, thanks to the publicity around this case his standing on a rating website is 1.5 out of a possible five. Not that this matters, unless Dr, Miller’s license is revoked for making up a psychiatric diagnosis. He'll probably become a national defense psychologist for making a case for similar defendants. If it were up to me his licesne to practice would be revoked for malpractice, if not sheer audacity, for trying to turn afflenza into a legitimate diagnosis.

The bottom line is that if you have a child facing jail time for vehicular homicide, and you can provide this particular judge with a defense alternative to treatment in a state facility, and offer to pay for it yourself, your kids can avoid the punishment and treatment ordinary kids would get.

It’s a good deal for the “convict” and his family who may or may not be able to keep in touch by phone, and it’s a good deal for the county in Texas which saves the cost of detention.

It’s a bad deal for the families of the victims.

This looks bad for all mental health professional who try to use legitimate and accurate diagnoses when they testify in court.